Adidas announced that it would resume production of shoes in Germany more than 20 years after it stopped making them in its home country. Its new “Speedfactory” will use robots, as opposed to the manual process the company employs in its manufacturing hubs in Asia.
The company announced that its Speedfactory in Germany will begin large-scale production in 2017.
In a statement, Adidas said “the first pairs of high-performance footwear to come out of the Adidas Speedfactory will be revealed later this year.” However, the still under-construction “Speedfactory facility will begin large-scale production in 2017.”
Herbert Hainer, CEO of the Adidas Group, said, “The Speedfactory initiative heralds a new era in footwear creation. This flexible model challenges the idea of centralised production and makes product close to where the consumer is. It opens doors to creation of product completely unique to the fit and functional needs of consumers, through a combination of the craft of shoe making and cutting-edge technology.
“Every day our teams come together to bring speed to life, and with the Adidas Speedfactory, we have a game changer in our hands. It enables us to combine speed in manufacturing with the flexibility to rethink conventional processes. Our goal is to give consumers what they want when they want it,” Glenn Bennett, executive board member of the Adidas Group responsible for global operations, pointed out. “It’s a new era in footwear crafting – with greater precision, unique design opportunities and high-performance. Products of tomorrow are going to look different to what we have today.”
The pilot adidas Speedfactory in Ansbach was set up in December 2015 in partnership with industry experts to provide a testing ground for this trailblazing model. The large-scale commercial production facility will be operated by Adidas’ strategic partner Oechsler Motion GmbH across an area of 4,600 m2. The statement concluded, “With best-in-class German engineering, Adidas is all geared to bring Speed to the consumers, before bringing production to the US next.”
Photo courtesy Adidas Group
